One of my mom’s favorite foods was peanut butter. She liked it on toast and she liked it on a warm piece of toast for breakfast. Jam or Jelly wasn’t even needed, and I recall bananas being a good addition. I don’t know if it was inspired by Elvis, but my mom was always ahead of her time and I choose to believe that maybe Elvis got the idea from my mom! I like peanut butter sandwiches on warm crunchy toast with bananas too and had it for dinner just a couple of weeks ago when I was simply too tired to come home and make a hot meal for dinner. It was satisfying and brought a smile to my face.

I picked up one of those Ninja blender/dough-maker/smoothie-maker/does-everything-but-eat-the-meal-for-you gadgets at the after Christmas sale at our local Target-ish store called Diunsa. I couldn’t resist. I know. I have a gadget problem. I am going to have to live here for a very long time to make the ROI (return on investment) worthwhile for the way I’ve outfitted this kitchen and my mom, and probably my sister would tell me I am nuts, but well, it’s too late. Some things have ended up in my kitchen here and the meals that are coming out of it when I’m not totally worn down by an overwhelming amount of work or the heat or well, just life in general, are fabulous.

I made peanut butter in the Ninja a couple of weeks ago and delicious Buckeyes were the result. Who could resist and what was I going to do with a pound of peanut butter?!

Someone recommended I use honey-roasted peanuts to make peanut butter the next time I decided to give it a try. I think it was probably Stephanie Manley of Copykat.com, who made the recommendation, but it might have been my sister, Jane? Darn memory!

Anyway, the peanut butter recipe is easy and if you want home made, smooth as you wish peanut butter, I recommend pulling out a Ninja or a Vitamix or a Blendtec or whatever really good blender you can get your hands on and grind away!

I used 1/2 a container of honey-roasted peanuts and let it go until it was smooooooth and it was warm when it came out. What I like about the Ninja is it’s profile. The smaller carafe fits easily under the cabinet and it tucks away into the corner very nicely. I can say, after making smoothies and peanut butter and pesto, this is a gadget I highly recommend and no, Ninja has no idea I exist. How could they? I ran away to Honduras and some of my friends don’t even know I’m here. Ok, so that’s kind of sad, isn’t it?

Back to the peanut butter recipe. That’s it! That’s the recipe. You don’t need anything else! NOTHING! Just put the peanuts in the Ninja, and hit crush and stand there and watch for a few minutes as the machine pulverizes those nuts into smooth, creamy, delicious, Honey-Roasted Peanut buter. The kind my mom would have loved to have warm out of the Ninja. The honey-roasted peanuts are sweet so the sugar already on the peanuts is all you need and there is no need for added oil. There’s plenty in the nuts. That’s why nuts have a pretty high calorie count, but if you’re going to splurge on peanut butter, make it yourself if you can. The peanut butter is smooth as you can see in the photos, but there is a little feel of the sugar. If you don’t want that, go for regular roasted peanuts, but I had to add a little vegetable oil to make it creamy enough. I added a full tablespoon to one 16 oz. container of plain roasted peanuts.

An added treat to today’s snack is the apple slices. See, I found Honey Crisp apples in the supermarket today! I was so excited I almost jumped up and down. As it was, Jorge couldn’t quite figure out why I was making this little squealing noise when I spotted them … and um… the Hebrew National hot dogs! It was a banner day at Los Andes Comisariato.

I know my mom would have loved this peanut butter.

Have you ever made peanut butter? Does your machine make it as smooth as you like?

By now you’ve probably seen the outpouring of Peanut Butter Pie memorials for Mikey, Jennifer Perillo’s husband. Jennifer is well known in the food blogging world and the number of pies — captured in mages, both photos and video, and words in her husband’s honor has been mind-boggling.

I don’t know Jennifer, and don’t know much about her, but what I do know is that this food blogging community has long arms and big hearts. When asked what could be done to help during this difficult time, Jennifer’s response was a request for people to make her husband’s favorite Peanut Butter Pie and reach out and share it with people you love.

There have been pies of all shapes and sizes. Tributes in words, images and videos to make your mouth water and your eyes tear. It’s been a few days of giving back to someone so many of us don’t know, but feel the need to reach out and to participate and to give back in a community event such as #apieformikey.

If you haven’t seen it yet, this incredible video will help you understand the spirit of the community.

I’m never one to back away from a community event. But I did not go to the store to pick up the ingredients to make a pie. I didn’t want anyone to think I was blowing off this important event so I took out one of my Weight Watchers standbys — the frozen Peanut Butter Cup dessert. Not because of any self-serving Weight Watchers weight loss goal or reason, but because I too am in mourning.

Without going into long detail, I lost a dear friend on Wednesday evening. In the 15 years I’ve known him we’ve been colleagues, compatriots, friends, and buddies and I wish there were more years in our future. But there can not be so I am going to celebrate his life and our friendship in a separate post, later this week, when I can honor a friend I miss to the point of tears and sometimes sobbing whenever I think of him.

But I want to make sure I don’t diminish Jennifer’s loss and heartbreak, so I’m offering this little piece of the current me. It’s not home made. It’s not free of the packaged, processed foods I’d normally write about here, but I hope that Jennifer finds the corners of her mouth can turn up just a little and she can be comforted by my thoughts for her and her family with my version of a thin Peanut Butter Pie offering.